














cya RADICALISM 









“NATIONAL CRISIS, 


x or EA NAL GODS 


PREACHED IN THE 


_ SOUTH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF BROOKLYN, 


? 





BY THE PASTOR 


Se 
Lie 
ye 


REV. SAMUEL T. SPEAR, D. D. 
Te Feniseye ecoee 19th, 1862. 


PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. 
Siren oe 


‘BROOKLYN: 


_ WM. W. ROSE, BOOKSELLER AND PRINTER, 
142 ATLANTIC STREET. 


Cn Ste. £18¢0, 











Brookiyn, Oct. 20th, 1862. 
Rev. 8. T. Spear, D. D. 


Dear Sir:—Having listened with much pleasure and profit 
to your Sermon preached yesterday morning, we request a copy for pub- 
lication in the hope that it may thus be put in the way of more permanent 
and extensive usefulness. 


J. MILTON SMITH, WALTER 8S. GRIFFITH, 
J. M. DOUBLEDAY, A. L. VAN BUREN, 
J.S.T. STRANAHAN, | WM. HANNAGHS, 

D. P. BAKER, BE. 0. HALLIDAY, 
FRANKLIN CLARK, W. R. DWIGHT, . 

C. DUNNING, L. W. BADGER, 

F. &. KNIGHT, : N. G. BROWN, 


WM. P. COOK, WM. W. ROSE. 


RADICALISM AND THE NATIONAL CRISIS. 


“ And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees ; therefore every tree 
which bringeth not forth good fruit, is hewn down and cast into the fire.’— 
Mat. 3: :10— 


To place the axe at the root of the tree is a figure to denote, 
that the tree is to be cut down at the roots, not simply trimmed, 
but actually destroyed. The reason is found in the fact, that it 
does not bring forth good fruit. . 

By the use of this figure, John the Baptist meant to say to 
the Jews, that as a people they had fallen upon searching times. 
The great Teacher and Reformer was about to come, establish- 
ing a Kingdom of justice and truth. It would no longer do for 
them to say,—“ We have Abraham to our father.” Principles 
and conduct were to be examined to their very foundations: Ju- 
daism was to be sifted; and whatever in the notions or practice 
of the people could not stand the test of truth, was to be dis- 
carded. In the person of Jesus a radical dispensation,—a min- 
istry of truth that goes down to the very roots of things,—was 
about to commence its reformatory career. Such we take to be 

i) the meaning of the text in its application to the Jewish people. 


ae There are many people, in whose minds the terms radical 


-~ and radicalism, are about equivalent to the terms Janatic and 


» fanaticism. To their understanding these words mean evil, and 
- only evil, and that continually. Hence they are convenient 
terms to excite the prejudices of men, and awaken popular odium. 
Sometimes they are used as a substitute for ideas, and quite often 
27> as the slang phrases of those who have some interest in promot- 
~ ing error, or practicing iniquity. I have no desire to make a 
plea for extremists and fools; yet there is a grand and glorious 
meaning connected with these much abused terms, which I wish, 


Hister¥- Research | 


2 RADICALISM AND THE NATIONAL CRISIS. 
if possible, to rescue from all misapprehension and evil associa- 
tions. I very much doubt whether it is best to be frightened 
simply because somebody cries out radical; and I am equally 
clear, that the term conservative has no natural right to monop- 
olize the claim to either purity or wisdom, The so called con- 
servatives are sometimes the weakest and most selfish of men. 
The Pope of Rome has always been a conservative; and so were 
the Pharisees in the days of Jesus. 

Prosecuting the object I have just indicated, let me then— 

_ IN THE FIRST PLACE, GIVE YOU A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF THE WORDS 
IN question. The true meaning of the term radical, the one 
which its etymology authorizes, is furnished by the figure of the 
text. It simply means to lay the axe at the root of the tree; 
and this means to go down to the bottom of things, and keep 
going down till you strike what may be properly designated as 
the hard-pan of fundamental truth. This is what John the Bap- 
tist did—what Jesus did—what the apostles did—what Luther 
did—and what all agency that is effectually curative of evil, 
must always do. 

The specific deszgn of this process is to find the truth touch- 
ing the matter involved, and then set it forth in contrast with, 
and contradistinection from, the error or the vice which it is the 
province of truth to expose and rebuke. Hence the great in- 
quiry is not, what do the Pharisees think? or what does Ceesar 
think? but rather what is truth,—truth in science, truth in prac- 
tical life, truth in morals, and truth in religion? Such in all ages 
has been the professed aim of the radical spirit. I am well 
aware, that the history of this spirit has not always been equal 
to its profession. Sometimes it has been rash, impetuous, impa- 
tient, intolerant, dictatorial; sometimes also it has torn up the 
very foundations of society, being so vehement and lawless as 
utterly to fail of its own end; and yet it is equally true, that this 
spirit proposes to realize one ofthe grandest theories that ever 
inspired the breast of humanity. Fixing its eye on truth, it de- 
signs to assert it fearlessly and boldly, launching its sharp and 
oft repeated thunders against sin and error. Not infrequently, 
yea, perhaps generally, it makes a commotion in the world. It 


RADICALISM AND THE NATIONAL ORISIS.’ 3 


stirs human society, and sets men to thinking. It is itself a very 
thinking spirit. ) 

In relation to huwmanity—its facts, its conditions, its wants, 
its duties, and its destiny,—this spirit is the bone and sinew, the 
life and impulse of all real progress, alike in the Church and the 
State. The truth is, since the fall of Adam this world has never 
been just right; it is not so now; and it will not be for some 
time to come. There is a vast accumulation of error among 
men, and also a vast accumulation of iniquity, in various forms 
pervading human society. Human nature wants improvement. 
Society wants it. Hence the practical question is this:—Shall 
we leave things as they are, because they are? or shall we at- 
tempt to make them better, rooting out the error and the wrong, 
and introducing the truth and the right? ‘his is the question 
with which we have to deal; and to it the radical spirit always 
returns but one answer. It clamors for correction, improvement, 
and progress. It is indeed the spirit of progress. The enlight- 
ened radical is the man of progress. The fact that things are, 
is not in his judgment conclusive proof that they ought to be. 
He takes the liberty of inquiring into their nature; and when 
he has reached a conclusion, he frankly and firmly tells the world 
of it. Galileo, for example, was an astronomical radical; he 
saw that, contrary to the notions of the age, the earth moved 
around the sun, and not the sun around the earth; by a perfect- 
ly radical investigation of the facts, he caught this truth; and 
although it subverted the cycles and epicycles of the old theory, 
although the Pope took the alarm and tried to keep him still, 
Galileo held fast to his conviction, and so far as he could, made 
it known to others. He was the man of progress; and the world 
now recognizes him as such. Those who would exorcise the 
Galileos in science, morals, and religion, are practically the ene- - 
mies of all progress. They may not always intend this; yet this 
is the legitimate effect of their theory. 

Such, in a word, is my analysis of the radical spirit, taken,— 
first, in its elementary meaning,—secondly, in its direct and 
specific aim,—thirdly, in its relation to the progress and devel- 
opment of man from an imperfect to a more perfect form of life. 


4 RADICALISM AND THE NATIONAL CRISIS. 


This is what I mean by the phrase. This I hold to be the true 
and proper import of the phrase. I come then,— 

IN THE SECOND PLACE, TO INQUIRE INTO THE ACTUAL HISTORY OF 
THIS SPIRIT IN ITS BEARING UPON THE INTELLECTUAL, SOCIAL, POLITI- 
CAL, MORAL, AND RELIGIOUS FORTUNES OF THE WORLD. ‘This, as you 
see, is a question of vast dimensions. The answer that I propose 
for your acceptance with its reasons, is the following—: That 
while this spirit has, sometimes by misapprehension, and some- 
times by excess, been productive of evil, its general history is 
one of untold blessings to mankind. 

If you turn your thoughts to the field of purely sczentzfic re- 
search, you will find that the men who have distinguished them- 
selves on this field, and contributed most largely to the advance- 
ment of human knowledge, are not the men who have trodden 
the beaten track of their fathers, governed by the precedents of 
Opinion, and content to retail old ideas, but the bold, the fearless, 
the original, the radical investigators of truth. These are the 
men who have made their mark upon the thinking of the world. 
Lord Bacon, in laying down the fundamental principles which 
should govern all investigation, and by those principles exposing 
the sophistries practiced by the schoolmen of the dark ages—; 
Sir Isaac Newton, in that profound inquest after truth, by which 
he at length discovered the great law, that gives regularity and 
harmony to the motion of the heavenly bodies—; Dr. Franklin, 
in catching the lightnings of heaven with a key, and resolving 
their phenomena into an electrical agency—; our own illustrious 
Morse, the inventor of the electric telegraph, in conceiving both 
the idea and the mechanism by which he could give a tongue to 
this agency—; John Locke, in his deep exploration of the origin 
of knowledge, correcting many of the cherished errors of former 
times—; these, and men of like stamp, were intellectual radi- 
calists, going to the bottom of things, advancing beyond the ideas 
which had preceded them, and cutting for themselves and for 
the world new channels in the great domain of thonght. Plato 
did this in his’age, and Aristotle, in his age. Such men refuse 
to bow to the authority of mere precedents. Assuming that 
ideas must at last rule the world, they not only drive the plough- 


RADICALISM AND THE NATIONAL CRISIS. 5 


share of truth into the errors of the past, but also greatly enlarge 
the kingdom of human ideas. True, they may sometimes go 
astray; they may delude themselves and mislead others; yet to 
this class of men the world is mainly indebted for those sciences 
that have conferred such exalted honors on our nature, as well 
as those arts and inventions which have done so much to improve 
the condition of mankind. But for their life and mental activ- 
ity, the intellectual status of earth would be stationary, perhaps 
retrogressive. 

Passing out of the circle of pure science into the sphere of 
reformatory movements, we find that the progress of the world is 
largely due to the same style of agency. A reform supposes an 
evil existing in human society, intrenched in some fundamental 
error of thought, or fortified by some vicious feeling, or,—what 
is generally the fact,—supported by both of these causes in com- 
bination. Now in the very nature of things a reformer must 
attack this evil; he must make an exhibition of its nature; he 
must reason about it; he must try it by some standard of truth; 
he must make an appeal to the conscience of men; and in doing 
this he must of necessity lay the axe at the root of the tree. He 
proposes a fundamental change in the notions and practice of 
men; and this can be gained only by truth as fundamental as 
the change itself. The truth must be as deep as the error,—deep 
enough at least to go to the bottom of the error. Take an 
example. 

The immortal Wilberforce, being impressed with the horrible 
iniquities of the Slave-trade as tolerated and fostered under the 
prestige and patronage of the British government, exposed it, 
and denounced it, in the English Parliament and before the brit- 
ish public, till the moral sense of the nation awoke to the enor- 
mity of the system, and sternly demanded that it should come 
toanend. The merchants of Liverpool, and the merchants of 
London, the men who were interested in this infamous traffic, 
denounced Wilberforce as a radical, a fanatic, an agitator; like 
the men of Ephesus, when their craft was in danger, they cried 
out,—“ Great is Diana of the Ephesians”; even Pitt, contrary to 
his personal pledges, had not the moral courage to breast the 


6 RADIOALISM AND THE NATIONAL CRISIS. 


storm and do his duty; yet Wilberforce, the radical, the man 
whom all honest men now delight to honor, held steadily to his 
purpose till he carried the point. He kept the ear of England 
tingling with the terrible wickedness of the slave-trade, till Eng- 
land’s conscience could no longer bear the sound. England now 
makes that piracy punishable with death, on which she once be- 
stowed her sanction. It was the radical spirit of Wilberforce 
that brought about this result. 

So, all the reformatory movements which have marked the 
history of England, or that of this country, and I may add, that 
of the world, have sprung from the same spirit, and been con- 
ducted by the same class of men. Who are the men that have 
resisted the assumptions of despotic power,—curtailed the pre- 
rogatives of kings,—made the monarchies of Europe far more 
liberal and just than they were a century ago,—contended for 
the doctrine of popular rights,—sympathised with the suffering, 
the oppressed, and the down-trodden of our species,—contributed 
to the emancipation and dignity of labor,—enlarged the right of 
suffrage,—pleaded most earnestly for the education of the mass- 
es,—poured forth their blood like water upon the altars of free- 
dom—; yes who are the men that have done these things? Who 
projected the American Revolution? Who wrote the Declara- 
tion of Independence, than which a more radical document never 
met the eye of earth or heaven? Who supported it with their 
lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor? To whom are we 
indebted for the political and civil system, under which we have 
so long, and until lately, so happily lived? The plain and honest 
voice of history will tell you, that these achievements are mainly 
due to those men, who have acted on the principle of laying the 
axe at the root of the tree, and then cutting down every tree 
that did not bring forth good fruit. Sometimes called Round 
Heads, sometimes Puritans, sometimes disorganizers, sometimes 
agitators, sometimes radicals, sometimes fanatics, sometimes one 
thing, and sometimes another, they have nevertheless been the 
most prominent actors in promoting the advancement of human- 
ity, correcting its abuses, and in all respects, improving the so- 
cial and political condition of our world. For a rule they are 


RADICALISM AND THE NATIONAL CRISIS. 7 


earnest and honest men, having strong convictions and deep feel- 
ings, not indeed always right in their ideas or prudent in their 
measures, yet men of vast power, men whose absence from earth 
would make a chasm which nothing else could fill. They have 
done too much for the good of the world to be branded with op- 
probrious epithets. 

Rising now to a still higher plane of thought, and observing 
the spiritual and religious history of mankind, we meet the same 
class of facts, springing from essentially the same source. When 
the Man of Sin had for ages spread the pall of moral death over 
all Europe, corrupting the very fountains of society, and prosti- 
tuting the pure religion of Jesus to the vilest purposes, who was 
it that lifted his voice in thunder-tones against this enormous 
and wide-spread iniquity? Who laid the axe at the root of the 
tree? Luther,—the bold, the honest, the earnest, the godly, the 
radical Luther, going to the bottom of things and bringing doc- 
trines and morals to the test of God’s word,—is the man who 
under God did this work. Who, during the long night of the 
dark ages refused to bow the knee to the Pope, and in their 
humble way maintained the pure worship of God amid their 
mountain-homes, persecuted, but not destroyed? The radical 
Albigenses and Waldenses are the men, on whom history has 
placed this mark of honor. Who were the martyrsin the early 
ages of the Church, boldly meeting the storm of Pagan persecu- 
tion, and cheerfully dying in the cause of their Master? They 
were the men whose religious convictions neither earth nor hell 
could suppress or conquer. Who first planted Christianity among 
men, turning the world upside down, and laying the axe at the 
very roots of Pagan Rome, and a corrupt Judaism? Who made 
such a stir in Judea and in various parts of the Roman Empire, 
some eighteen centuries ago? This was the work of Jesus and 
his apostles, than whom considered in reference to the existing 
status of the age, greater radicalists the world never furnished. 
Who when he mounted the throne of Judea, cut down the idol- 
atrous groves, and purified the temple and worship of the living 
God? This was the work of Josiah,—a young and pious prince 
who meant to make the remedy as deep and broad as the disease. 


8 RADICALISM AND THE NATIONAD ORISIS. 


Coming nearer to our own times, who, let me ask, were the 
Dissenters and Puritans in England? Who fled from the old 
world, and came to this, for the purpose of enjoying their religi- 
ous rights? Who are the men that floated in the May Flower, 
and in the depths of Winter landed at Plymouth Rock? Who 
planted the Church, the School-house, and the State on these 
Western shores? The same men, as to their spirit and temper, 
that in the armies of Oliver Cromwell sung psalms, and made pray- 
ers, and then fought for God and liberty as no other men ever 
did. They were radicaiists, hated by the English aristocracy, © 
persecuted for their faith, yet fulfilling a mission in the history 
of the world, which one must be blind not to see. Their power 
consisted in the thoroughness and depth of their principles. 
They belong to the class whom kings and politicians sometimes 
disdain, and as often fear. They are the men who have a gos- 
pel; and they believe it. Their brains are not too narrow to 
comprehend fundamental principles. 

Who stirred up all New England, some century ago, purify- 
ing its theological atmosphere, and showing the unscriptural 
character of what has been styled the “ Half-Way Covenant” in 
respect to the question of church-membership, reasoning with 
the people of his special charge, and reasoning with the ministry, 
and choosing to forfeit the good esteem of his people rather than 
sacrifice the truth? The man who faced opposition, and under 
God accomplished this task, is Jonathan Edwards,—that illus- 
trious prince in theology, that profoundest of thinkers, as well 
as that most beautiful exhibition of the Christian virtues; and 
he did the work by laying the axe at the root of the tree. Who, 
by deep and earnest discussion, struck such heavy blows against 
the Unitarian heresy, so prevalent and so popular in New Eng- 
land, some half a century ago? Moses Stuart and the venerable 
Dr. Woods,—both of whom, I trust, are now reaping the heaven- 
ly reward of their labors,—buckled on the armor of God, and 
contended earnestly for the faith. They, too, laid the axe at the 
root of the tree. 

You thus see, without farther recital, that the radical spirit in 
science, in the reformatory movements of earth, and the religious 


RADICALISM AND THE NATIONAL ORISIS. 9 


developements of man, so far from being justly obnoxious to our 
suspicion or censure, is really worthy a all praise. It is one 6f 
the elements in human character, by which the mighty God 
makes his power felt on earth. It is one of the chosen instru- 
ments of Providence to bless and save this fallen world. The 
most effective men of our race have been actuated by this spirit. 
Such men do quite as much thinking as other men, and vastly 
more than some. Very often they win victories, over which, 
being won, the conservatives are ready to shout in terms of the 
highest laudation. Doubtless, there are many who glorify Lu- 
ther to-day, who, if living in the sixteenth century, would have 
passed him by as a radical. Some people are very bold in kill- 
ing dead lions; but no motive can persuade them to touch a liv- 
ing question, till all doubt about the issue is removed. Then 
their courage comes up to the mark. You can never find them 
when you want them; and when you do not want them, they 
are quite ready to help on the good cause. They are too conser- 
vative to peril any thing. Their consciences are too elastic to 
have much force. 

I really wonder what those newspapers, and those orators and 
those office-seekers can be thinking about, who denounce the 
radical spirit, as if it were the quintessence of all evil. Are 
they playing with words? Are they trying to deceive the peo- 
ple? Do they understand what they so freely denounce? Are 
they honest? Have they read history? I take the liberty of 
saying to them, that the facts do not justify the opprobrium they 
design. The senrd radical, analytically and historically expoand- 
ed, isa royal term. In reference to the momentuons questions 
of the Revolutionary age, George Washington was a radical; 
Thomas Jefferson, another; John Hancock, another; and John 
Adams, another. They lived in a radical age, and were as rad- 
_ical as the age. They were the men of the future, while the To- 
ries in this country and George III in England were the conser- 
vatives, the men of the present. 

I come now, my brethren, to what I had in view in the com- 
mencement of this sermon, and what the preceding remarks must 
have suggested, > 


10 RADICALISM AND THE NATIONAL ORISIS. 


IN THE THIRD PLACE, TO MAKE AN APPLICATION OF THESE THOUGHTS 
TO THE AFFAIRS OF OUR OWN COUNTRY AT THE PRESENT MOMENT.—I 
am “not here to preach politics in the low, party sense of the 
term. J never did this in the pulpit; and I think I never shall. 
Nor am I here to make any apology for my utterances. I have 
but one rule in preaching; and that is to speak what I think, 
leaving the people to judge for themselves. 

The times, in my judgment, imperatively demand, that the 
Christian pulpit should have a distinct and clear ring. It is no 
hour for God’s servants to hide themselves, and practice ambi- 
guities for the sake of being unintelligible. The tremendous 
and appalling drama of events which Divine Providence is now 
enacting in this land, should bring every man to the altar of 
prayer, and then carry him from that altar to discharge the du- 
ties he owes to God, his country, to posterity, and the world. 
What is now the great American question, has sent its thrill 
over all Europe. It will, either for weal or woe, cast its sha- 
dows on the path of coming centuries. With a single excep- 
tion, it is more radical and more fundamental, and involves 
larger interests, than any other upon which mortals or immortals 
ever fixed the gaze of thought. God, I believe, is in this ques- 
tion. ‘There is a divine reason init. There is a divine justice 
in it”; and we may be sure that there is a divine purpose to be 
answered by it. Providence is in’ the crisis of the hour. 

As I survey the matter, there are three radical principles, 
crowded by the God of Providence upon this nation, and de- 
manding our solution. The first is one of nateconal life; the se- 
cond is one of moral justice ; and the third is one of an enlarged 
and generous Christian philanthropy. On each of these points 
I wish to say a word, beginning— | 3 

Hirst, with the question of national life. It would be folly 
either to underrate or misunderstand our foe. He means to des- 
troy this noble Union of States. His plan if successful, is per- 
fectly fatal. Secession is the theory; but destruction is the end. 
Rebellion and fighting, robbery and pillage are the means of 
this gigantic crime against the Constitution and peace of our 
common country. : 


RADICALISM AND THE NATIONAL ORISIS. 11 


What have we to do in such premises? Shall we talk about 
peace-measures, and compromise-measures in the presence of an 
armed rebellion? Shall we call those our political brethren who 
are our public enemies, who are traitors to the Constitution, and 
who are putting the knife to the very throat of our national ex- 
istence? Shall we by party strife, and for party purposes, seek 
to foment discord in our own ranks? No—never—never. Our 
duty is to put down this rebellion, to crush it absolutely, using 
all the means which God and nature have placed in our hands 
for this purpose. Our duty is to blast and brand with eternal 
infamy the theory of secession, and prove to the world that this 
Union ‘‘is a government in the highest sense of the term, the en- 
forcement of whose laws, at whatever cost, is a fundamental ar- 
ticle of its creed, just as fundamental as liberty itself.” This we 
must do, or die as a nation. I hence regard this war for the 
Union as an imperative necessity. I regard it as a holy war. 
The sword was never drawn in a more sacred cause, and should 
never be returned to its scabbard till the end is gained. What 
shall be done with the rebels when they are conquered, is an af- 
ter-question. Let us first conquer them. Let us beat them on 
the battle-field, as we can do, and I believe, we will do, dispers- 
ing their armies, and bringing them to absolute submission. 
This, I know, is a very radical measure; the land groans under 
the tread of contending legions; blood flows, and families weep ; 
yet, in the circumstances of our position, no other measure meets 
the case. No other measure will give the death-blow to the 
wicked theory of secession. No other measure will preserve the 
integrity, the dignity, and glory of this government. No other 
measure will prove, that we are what we claim to be—a NaTion. 
No other measure will settle this controversy upon a lasting basis. 
We must conquer the rebels, or be conquered by them. . We 
must lay the military axe at the root of the tree, with an ear- 
nestness and decision that leave no doubt as to our purpose. 

The second point is one of moral justice. We have practic-. 
ed a great iniquity in this land. We have continued to practice 
it year after year, and generation after generation. In the bos- 
om of the freest government on which the sun ever shone, we 


12 RADICALISM AND THE NATIONAL CRISIS. 


have the institution of human slavery. We have tolerated it, 
fostered it, legislated for it, bought territory for its extension, till 
it has grown to its present fearful and appalling dimensions. 
Not a few in this country have gone so far as to call it ght. 
And not a few who think it wrong, have desired to say but little 


about it. The Southern people by one of the most extraordin- - 


ary apostacies in morals to-be found in the history of man, and 
contrary to the faith of their fathers, have canonized the institu- 
tion of slavery. | 

Morever, that slavery is the cause of this rebellion, the great 
rvot and ground of our present troubles, is as piain as the sun in 
the heavens. The chief watchwords of the rebellion have been 
the sanctity and perpetuity of slavery. The leaders have hung 
out the flag of slavery. They have declared it to be the chief cor- 
ner-stone of a political edifice, that is to be built on the eternal 
wretchedness of an oppressed and subjugated race. When they 
discovered by the census of 1860, as well as by the last Presid- 
ential election, that the political power of this country was pas- 
sing into the hands of freemen, and out of the hands of slaye- 
holders, and that they were to be no longer the ruling power in 
the national government, then according to the programme of 
Mr. Calhoun, of more than thirty years standing, they rent the 
contract by which they had hitherto been bound. The whole 
meaning of this civil war so far as the South is concerned, is the 
preponderance of slavery, and of the obligarchy which is found- 
ed upon this institution. Slavery for its own dire purposes has 
decreed that the nation shall die. There is no use in blinking 
this point, or mis-understanding it. Public opinion, the common 


sense of men, and the philosophy of the facts, as well as the con- 


fessions of the rebels themselves, are not, and cannot be, in error 
on this point. Back of all other causes lies the slave power as 
the chief cause of this rebellion. And but for it no such diab- 
olical scheme would have ever been conceived, or if conceived, 
attempted. 

What then, we enquire, are the signs of the times as written 
upon the sky of God’s providence? We have all been hoping 
and even predicting, that this rebellion would prove the death- 


y 


RADICALISM AND THE NATIONAL CRISIS. 13 


knell of slavery—just how and when, we have not been able to 
see. Had the rebellion been less persistent and formidable, had 
it been conquered with but little fighting, had the armies of 
the Union been far more successful, had slavery proved, as many 
supposed, an element of weakness, and not as the facts show, an 
element of very great strength—:had this been the order of Pro- 
vidental events, to all hnman seeming this war would have ended 
without reaching the slavery-question in any very essential and 
radical form. Such however has not been the order of Provi- 
dence. We have had serious disasters and delays. We have 
had time to collect our thoughts, and reflect upon what is right. 
We have had a severe discipline. Providence has thrown sev- 
eral thousands of slaves upon our hands. We have found it ne- 
cessary to use them, and to make some provision for them. While 
we have vacillated in our policy, sometimes looking in one dir- 
ection, and sometimes in another, sometimes seeming to have no 
policy, the government scarcely knowing what to do, Providence, 
by the stern force of events, has been slowly but steadily crowd- 
ing the slavery-question upon public attention. The effort to 
ignore it has been constantly bringing it to the surface. We have 
not been able to get rid of it. In whatever way the President 
looked, this question met him. It has floated on every breeze, 
and drifted in every current. In the outset of the struggle, I 
confess myself to have been rather cautious in my thoughts: I 
scarcely knew what I did think: [I had no desire that the 
President should be hasty or hurried in his final policy on this 
subject : I thought I saw that he needed time to think, and also 
that the public mind needed discipline and training by the 
course of events—: yet now, in the existing circumstances, 
looking at the past, taking into view the character of the strug- 
gle, and above all, studying the principles which govern the 
righteous providence of God, permit me to say very frankly, 
that I have reached my conclusion. J am in favor of employ- 
ing the whole military strength of this nation, to carry into 
practical execution the purposes expressed by the President in 
his recent Proclamation. The measure, I know, is radical; yet 
there are times, and we have fallen upon them, when radical 
measures are the wisest. 


14 _ RADICALISM AND THE NATIONAL ORISIS. 


As a war-measure, as the means of reaching a Constitutional 
end, which is the only aspect of the case presented in the Pre- 


sident’s Proclamation, I do not see how any reasonable man can 


doubt his right to adopt it. He has a right as “ the Commander- 
in-Chief of the army and the navy,” to do any thing justified 
by the usages of civilized warfare, which, in his judgment, may 
be necessary to the conquest of the rebellion. This is involved 
in the very nature of the war-power ; and surely it is Constitu- 
tional to use the whole strength of this power to maintain the 


government of these United States. [am not able to see what , 


there is in slavery so sacred, that it should be exempted from 
the ordinary incidents of war, especially a war provoked by 
itself. Let it take the consequences of its own acts. Slavery is 
giving great aid and comfort to this rebellion ; the slave-popula- 
tion furnishes the producing force which feeds the army in the 
field ; a portion of it accompanies the army in the character of 
servants, and diggers of trenches; the rebels themselves are 
using this power to great advantage; and surely if we may do 
anything to weaken and destroy them, if we may take away 
their property, and if necessary, bombard their cities, then in 
the state of war, we may strike down that institution for whose 
ascendency they are. fighting, and on which they rely as one 
element of strength. If they want to escape the blow, let them 
lay down their arms; and the President’s Proclamation will not 
touch them. They are now simply warned by the Proclamation, 
“that on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one 
thousand eight hundred and siaty-three, all persons held as slaves 
within any State, or any designated part of a State, the people 
whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, 
shall be then THENCEFORWARD @?@ FOREVER FREE, and the execu- 
tive government of the United States, including the military and 
naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom 


of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such per-— 


sons, or any. of them, in any efforts they may make for their 
AcTuAL freedom.” Let the rebels lay down their arms before the 
first day of January; and this Proclamation will not disturb the 
institution of slavery. It becomes effective only in the event of 
their persistence in the war. It offers them a day of grace. 


RADICALISM AND THE NATIONAL CRISIS. 15 


If it be objected, that this Proclamation may take effect in 
emancipating the slaves of those who are loyal citizens in the re- 
bellious States, then I answer—: first, that the number of these 
persons must be exceedingly small, as compared with the whole ~ 
people,—: secondly, that a measure demanded by a great public 
necessity for the suppression of the rebellion, is not to be balked 
in its course for the sake of this small minority of persons, who 
are not in active rebellion—: thirdly, that the theory of the 
President is, that these persons should receive compensation from 
_ the Federal Government for the loss of their slaves. I confess, 
that I do not see any force in the objection. The loyal people of 
the Free States are suffering most severely in consequence of this 
war; and why should not the loyal people, if any there be, in 
the rebellious States, be willing to accept a measure, not prim- 
arily aimed at them, but designed to crush this accursed treason, 
even though they may be sufferers in its practical execution by 
reason of their connection with traitors? Is slavery so dear to 
them that they cannot give it up even to save the Union? If 
truly loyal, they will welcome the blow, and trust to the govern- 
ment to do them justice afterwards. 

Those who are very sensitive about the Constitution at this 
time, who want the war prosecuted, as they say, according to the 
Constitution, and doubt the constitutionality of this measure, 
seem to forget that this very Constitution bestows upon the Go- 
vernment the war-power, of which the President is the execu- 
tive agent. In discharging the trusts committed to him, the 
Constitution makes it his duty to conquer the foe, and use all the 
means in his power for this purpose. Traitors against the Con- 
stitution have no rights under it, except to be conquered and 
hung. They surely are not the men to plead the Constitution in 
their own behalf. 

Will not the measure exasperate the rebels, and make them 
more persistent than they otherwise would be? I think, the ex- 
perience of the last eighteen months supplies an ample answer 
to this question. These men are not to be exasperated. They 
are already as determined as they can be. They are not to be 
conciliated by any emollient system of treatment. They mean 


16 RADICALISM AND THE NATIONAL ORISIS. 


to fight, and to keep fighting; and fight they undoubtedly will 
until they are conquered, as perhaps no other people were ever 
conquered in the history of human warfare. It is high time to 
relinquish the false idea of coaxing this rebellien into good na- 
ture. We have already lost much by playing war; and now if 
we mean to win in this struggle, we must make the rebels feel 
the war in its utmost severity. This is the shortest, surest, and 
most merciful way to the end. 

As to the question of expediency, the President having taken 
this ground, and after long delay and much consideration, issued 
his Proclamation, the measure becomes expedient, even if it 
were not so before. As I read events, the Proclamation is not 
ahead of Providence; nor is it in advance of a rapidly increas- 
ing drift of public sentiment; and the way now to solve the 
problem of expediency, is to put on the armor, and make the de- 
struction of slavery as the means, and the preservation of the 
Union. as the end, the grand watchwords of the struggle. Let us 
carry freedom and victory in the same hand. The power that 
can gain the latter, can also gain the former. If we can con- 
quer this rebellion, we can also kill slavery while doing it. We 


now have the opportunity, as we should not have in times of 


peace. We can nowrid the land of that which has so long been 
its curse and its shame. ‘The hour for doing this work, and the 
only hour possible since the Revolutionary age, has come; and 
my prayer to God is, that we may see our opportunity. He 
does not mean, if I read his providence correctly, to let us off 
with any half-way work on this subject. We must now lay the 
axe at the root of the tree, and put an end to slavery. I have 
no denunciations for those who dissent from these opinions. They 
are my opinions; and I utter them in the fear of God. 

In respect to the eguety and moral justice of the result accru- 
ing from this measure, I have no doubt. I hold, as I ever have 
. held, that the system of human slavery is wrong—a sin against 
God and the dearest rights of our nature. For this wrong we 
are now suffering as a people. God is angry with us, and pun- 
ishing us for this sin, and punishing those most severely who 
have sinned most grievously. The best way to please God and 


j 


RADICALISM AND THE NATIONAL CRISIS. 17 


secure his favor, is to put away this evil from the land, to do 
right, to break every yoke, and let the oppressed go free. If 
with the opportunity we now have, and the discipline through 
which we have passed, and are still passing, we come short of 
this point,—if we undertake to cheat eternal justice,—then my 
belief is, that a night of deeper shades than this dark hour 
awaits us in the future. You may depend upon it, that it is safe 
to do right; and the American people can commit no mistake 
so-great as in this hour to fail in executing that sentence of death 
against slavery, for which Providence calls, and which God’s 
justice must approve. The ways and the methods I leave with 
those whose is the official task, pledging to them my support and 
my prayers, and beseeching Almighty God to give them alike 
the nerve and the wisdom to compass the end. “TI frankly con-. 
fess to you, gentlemen, (said a distinguished politician, address- 
ing an assembly not long since,) I frankly confess to you, that, 
for myself, I take no interest in the negro; but, gentlemen, I am 
at a loss to conceive how any man can review the history of this 
rebellion without a clear conviction that Almighty Providence 
does!” Justso,my hearers. God does take an interest in some 
four millions of slaves; he is showing that interest at this hour ; 
and the time has fully come for us, the creatures of his power 
and the ministers of his providence, to inquire for the path of 
duty on this subject, and then walk init. My greatest concern 
about the nation lies at this very point. 

The third question growing out of the tumes, rs one of en- 
larged and generous Christian philanthropy—. It is sometimes 
called the negro-question in distinction from that of slavery. If 
we put away slavery, as I pray God that we may, then we must 
not. butcher the black man to get rid of him, but treat him in 
the sequel of his history according to the law of love. As the 
superior race, we have injured him quite long enough. Let us 
now try to do him good. As an inferior, ignorant, degraded, 
comparatiyely helpless race, subject to enormous disadvantages, 
he appeals to our philanthropy. We owe to him the duties of 
philanthropy. If he can constitute, either in part or in whole, 
the laboring population of the Southern States, being rewarded 


18 RADICALISM AND THE NATIONAL CRISIS, 


for the toil of his hands, and duly protected in his rights as a 
man,—if this be the best arrangement for him and also for the 
white race—then so be it. I have no objections. For one 
I do not wish to drive him from this land, nolens volens, whether 
he will or not, and whether this is best or not. The idea, that, 
being free, he will emigrate to the North, and here make a jar 
in our system of labor, which is the fear of some, seems to me 
not well founded. The climate is against it. The proclivities 
and affinities of the black man are for Southern latitudes. Left 
to himself, he will instinctively choose the sunny South. It is 
now his home. Remove slavery ; and the tendency of the blacks © 
who are now at the North, will be to go to the Southern States, 
where they can find a people of their own race in much larger 
numbers than they can find them here. 

Tf, on the other hand, the black man cannot here, in immedi- 
ate contact with the white race, realize his true and proper des- 
tiny, as, | am inclined to think, will prove the fact, though ‘in 
this I may be mistaken, then the dictate of philanthropy is that 
we should find him a Aome, and furnish him with all the facili- 
ties in our power for reaching it. He must live somewhere ; and 
if it be a settled fact that he cannot live here to his own advant- ~ 
age or ours, then let us look about the world, and see what we: 
ean do for him. Men of our race brought him here; and we 
their descendants have a duty to perform in giving him a home 
somewhere. If we cannot send him back to Africa, as I think 
we cannot in sufficient numbers to solve the problem, then we 
must seek for him a home nearer by, at some place more con- 
venient of access, where this government could extend over him 
its fostering and protecting care. It would not be wonderful, if 
in the sequel of Providence the State of Florida, and perhaps 
portions of Albama, or the States of Central America, should 
finally become the resting place and residence of this outcast and 
unhappy race. We are in the mere dawn of this problem; we 
cannot see very far into it at present; and the dictate of philan- 
thropy is that we should make ourselves attentive students of the 
facts as they may be developed by Providence, and then act ac- 
cordingly. The President, I perceive, is strongly inclined to 


RADICALISM AND THE NATIONAL ORISIS. 19 


the theory, that as we remove the system of slavery, the black 
race must be separated from the whites, and settled elsewhere. 
Perhaps he is right in this opinion, and perhaps the facts will 
show that he is not right. It is high time that the best minds 
in the nation should be thinking upon the subject. We have 
the question on hand, or judging from the indications of Pro- 
vidence, we soon shall have in a very practical form; and we 
ought to be making up our minds as to what is just, and wise, 
and humane, and Christian. The question as to what we shall 
do with the black man, and what we shall do for him, if re- 
leased from the bondage of slavery, let me tell you, is one of the 
. great questions of the age. In its solution he is for the most 
part dependent upon the friendship, the kind regards, and Christ- 
ian philanthropy of the white race. He has no power to solve 
it himself. As he merges into freedom, he must receive his 
destiny from those at whose hands he receives that freedom. 
They will fix his position and his home rather than himself. He 
cannot conquer his own destiny. His intelligence, powers of 
combination, and resources of action are not equal to the task. 
He appeals to us to think for him; and think we must, and act 
we must, as wise and good men, thinking and acting in the fear 
.of God, endeavoring to carry out towards the black man the 
principles of a sound, impartial, Christian philanthropy. 

It is quite possible, moreover, that we are seriously under- 
rating the capacities of the black man to help himself. Perhaps 
what he most wants from the white race, is that we should Je¢ 
him alone, and give him a chance to work out his own destiny. 
This we have not hitherto done. We have subjected him to 
great disadvantages in the Free States, and in the Slave States 
oppressed him by one of the most cruel despotisms that human 
nature ever felt. We have not been content to let the black 
man alone, and let him take his chances with other men on the 
field of life. If now we would practice this species of justice 
towards him, both North and South, perhaps the Providence of 
God, at least in the course of a few generations, would show 
that we are making more of the negro-question than really be- 
longs to it. At any rate, a good beginning towards the end will 


20 RADICALISM AND THE NATIONAL ORISIS. 


be to let the black man alone in the sense of ceasing to do him 
harm, in the sense of putting away slavery, and discontinuing 
his oppressions ; and whatever remains to be done after this to 
assist him in the recuperative struggle for a higher in will 
thereby be greatly simplified. 

I have thus, my brethren, given you my thoughts upon some 
of the radical questions of this most radical age. I have not 
spoken to you as the politician or the partisan, but as the minis- 
ter of Christ. I have spoken honestly and frankly, surely not 


wishing to offend even the most unimportant ear in this house, 


yet desirous of being thoroughly understood. I have practiced 


no ambiguity of words, and held back no utterance which I — 


deemed germane to the subject. I have thus spoken from a 
sense of duty to you, to my country, and my God. You will 
hold me responsible for the utterance. You may do so. I am 
perfectly willing that you should. What I have said, is but a 
just expression of my sentiments, not hastily formed, or uttered 
in wrath. If these views are not in your opinion correct, you 
have as much right to think your own thoughts as I have to 
think mine. All that I claim is to do my own thinking, whether 
I stand in this place or elsewhere. I have always exercised this 


privilege, and I expect to do so as long as I live. If ever I felt , 


solemn and serious, far more anxious to speak the truth than to 
please the hearer, this is that moment. 

I cannot conclude without a word of exhortation. I exhort 
you,— 

In the first place, to stand by the government, and that too 
whether you approve of all its measures or not. Kemember, 
that the government does not consist in a piece of paper, but in 
living men, who in the providence of God are intrusted with the 
administration of our national affairs. These men are now the 
government. Remember, also, that unless you propose to have 
a revolution, this war must be conducted through the agency of 
our present Chief Magistrate, at least until the period when his 
term of office shall expire. That the President is earnestly and 
honestly laboring for the preservation of this Union, I think no 
man can doubt. He ought therefore to be supported by the 


Rg 


: 


RADICALISM AND THE NATIONAL ORISIS. 21 


people, by the whole people. His mistakes, if there be any, 
should be regarded with great leniency. Noman ever had a 
more difficult task to perform. This is no time for a factious 
opposition, or for a division in the ranks of loyalty. The South, 
in the commencement of this rebellion, based their hope of suc- 
cess on three grounds. The first is cotton, which has failed 
them; the second is foreign intervention, which has also failed 
them; and the third is a divided North, which has hitherto failed 
them, as I pray God that it may continue todo. If we divide 
our strength, our cause is lost. We cannot conquer this rebel- 
lion, unless we are thoroughly united in the purpose to do so; 
and if we are thus united, nothing can be more certain than our 
ultimate triumph. . 
I exhort you, in the second place, to give your support, mo- 
ral, social, and political, to those men of whatever name or 
party, and to those men only, whose devotion to the government 
in its present struggle is above all question. You now want 
true men—war-men—men about whose position there is no am- 
biguity—men who mean to carry this nation through to final 
victory. No other men are fit to represent the people in such a 
crisis. Sympathizers with rebellion,—cold and lukewarm pa- 
triots—demagogues, more anxious for office than to save their 
country,—those who are eloquent in denouncing the government, 
while they have very little to say against the treason that now 
threatens the life of the nation—: these, in my judgment, are 
not the men, whom a loyal and honest people can safely trust: 
with official power. If there ever was atime in the history of 
the world when a man’s principles should be above all question, 
this seems to me that time. His record should be as clear as 
hight. I make these remarks with no reference to any political 
organizations, whether Republican, Democratic, or mixed. With 
such organizations I have nothing to do in this place. My ob- 
ject is simply to lay down a principle, whose application must 
be the work of your own judgment. I extend the right hand.of 
fellowship to any man and every man, who is entirely sincere, 
honest, and earnest in prosecuting this war till every vestige of 
treason against the federal government shall be completely sub- 


22 RADIOCALISM AND THE NATIONAL ORISIS. 


jugated. Ido not ask him to adopt all my reasons for this posi- 
tion. What I ask, is that he adopt the position itself. 

I exhort you, in the third place, patiently, cheerfully, and 
hopefully to bear the burdens of this struggle. I know, they 
are great; and they may become very much greater. Some of 
you have given your sons and kindred to the war; and some of 
you mourn the loss of those who have poured their honored 
blood upon the altars of their country. We have all felt, and 
are still feeling, and shall long continue to feel, the sad conse- 
quences of this unhappy strife. And yet, unless I am utterly at 
fault in my apprehension of the case, the cause is worthy of the 
sacrifice. The character and capacities of the American people 
never shone more brightly than during the last eighteen months 
of their history. The bravery of our soldiers, their patient and 
long endurance, their heroic achievements on the field of deadly 
conflict,—the voluntary enlistment of nearly a million of men— 
the creation, almost in a day, of a vast navy—the ample supply 
of the sinews of war,—the organization of committees and asso- 
ciations to provide for the physical, moral, and spiritual good of 
the army—the services rendered by the women,—the co-opera- 
tion of the Christian ministry—the voice of prayer in almost 
every sanctuary, and in almost every assemblage of the saints— 
the oft-repeated judgment of ecclesiastical bodies—: these, and 
the like facts, declare that the American people cherish their 
national government with an undying devotion, and that they 
are as energetic and invincible in war as they are prosperous in 
the arts of peace. Though not hitherto bred to fighting, they 
can fight. Fighting is their strange work; and yet when it 
comes to this, they have shown themselves equal to the hour. 
Let us then go on in just this line of action, and keep going on, 
patiently, cheerfully, and hopefully doing all things, daring all 
things, bearing all things, meeting all emergencies, yielding to 
no discouragement, superior to temporary disaster, swearing upon 
the altars of our country that we will never lay down the sword, 
till the last armed rebel against the Constitution and the Union 
is either subjugated or dead. This was our motto in the outset; 
and I hope, it will be to the end. I of course wish, that this 


=~ 


RADICALISM AND THE NATIONAL ORISIS. 23 


end might soon come; yet be it distant or near, in my life-time 
or after I shali have gone the way of all the earth, I do not want 
this war to cease till the twenty millions of freemen who have 
embarked in it, have either gained the object, or proved its 
utter impossibility. Then, and not till then, I am for peace. As 
I read the book of God, that wisdom which is from above, is— 
“‘ first puRE, then peaceable.” 

I exhort you, finally, to be men of prayer. Pray for the 
President. Pray for the members of his Cabinet. Pray for 
the soldier, and pray for his commanders. Pray for the sick and 
the wounded. Pray for those who are appointed unto death, 
and who will never again see their homes.. Pray for the desol- 
ate families that weep in secret places. Pray for our public 
enemies, beseeching God to give them repentance and better 
minds. Pray for the poor slave, asking the God of justice and 
mercy to open the door of freedom from his long night of bond- 
age. Pray for the whole country, imploring High Heaven: to 
cut short this war, and give us a peace, that, being founded in 
the principles of eternal righteousness, shall be strong as the 
solid mountains, broad and deep as the ocean, and lasting as 
time. Let us now, by the good providence of God, settle the 
question of our national life, and settle it in harmony with just- 
ice; then let the energies of this great and growing nation be 
directed towards the peaceful industries of society ; and we shall 
not only repair the damges accruing from the war, but far tran- 
scend all our previous history as a member in the great family 
of nations., In view of these objects in which you and I, and 
our children after us, yea, all the world, have so deep an inter-- 
est , let us most fervently beseech the God of providence to ac- 
company the national army, and make it victorious on every 


field. 





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